07 Dec 2011
FISA Team Cup breaks winter monotony
Great Britain dominated the 13th FISA Team Cup held last weekend in Seville, Spain.
Organised at Seville's high performance rowing centre, the FISA Team Cup is a friendly sprint regatta held annually on the Guadalquivir River. It stages elite rowers getting a feel for the upcoming World Rowing season as winter training is drawing to a close. Crews race in eleven events over 1,000 metres on the first day of racing and 500 metres on the second day of racing. This year, the event included 23 participating nations.
Great Britain won the FISA Team Cup trophy after winning five events on each of the two days of racing. The British men's four was the focus of attention, with Coach Juergen Grobler re-seating and re-combining crew members: "We're trying different things at the moment and mixing up the four was part of that," said Grobler to GB Rowing News. In Saturday's racing, usual stroke Andrew Triggs-Hodge ended up in bow and usual bow Steve Williams ended up in stroke. Grobler also successfully paired up Steve Williams and Matthew Langridge in the 1,000-metre race and Andrew Triggs-Hodge and Peter Reed in the 500-metre race.
Germany grabbed gold in two events, the women's double and the women's lightweight single sculls, with Daniela Reimer winning the 500-metre race against Dutch lightweight Marit Van Eupen, reigning World Champion in the lightweight single.
Daniele Gilardoni, number one on World Rowing's list of Top 10 male rowers for 2006 traded lightweight sculling for heavyweight sweep rowing, finishing fourth in the 1,000-metre race with partner Giorgio Tuccinardi.
Host nation Spain qualified for eight out of eleven finals, competing against other finalist nations Algeria, Argentina, Belgium, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Mexico, South Africa, Switzerland, and Tunisia.
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